Riding to Atsion in 1773

[Banjo]

Posts like this is one of the reasons I love this site. Thanks Jerseyman. I wonder what the folks in the future will say about us. Think about it, " I had an uncle who only got three channels on t.v, and it was in black and white only. He drove a gas powered car that ran on leaded gasoline, and could gap plugs and points, whatever they were before he learned how to drive. Could ride a horse, and even knew how to saddle it, although not very well. They had a telephone that you had to dial..."

The diaries mention the discomforts, but I have yet in my limited reading on the period about ticks and chiggers. Were they as much of a pain in that era as they are now? They had to get out of the wagon or off the horse at some point when nature called, and I am sure they wandered into the brush a bit as we do now when that happens.

 

[Piney Boy]

Piney Boy:

Adaptation and developing a variety of skills primarily through “the school of hard knocks” (read “practical experience”) is a hallmark of our forefathers’ age. When I read a reactive text such as yours, I harken back to viewing the television series that takes place in England, when late-twentieth-century Britishers attempt to live like their Victorian-age ancestors. While those ancestors did not know any better and adapted to the circumstances at-hand—and likely reveled in their “modern” appliances—it was well beyond difficult for the modern folks to back-date their lives to that period, since they were so familiar with and used to all of our great conveniences.

As a ranger at Independence Hall folks would ask regularly "You love the 18th century, you'd probably want to live then right?" My answer "No Ma'am, I'm a big fan of indoor plumbing."
It's easy for us to romanticize the past without using the correct context. For years the Park Service did it with regards to slavery, pretending the Jeffersons, Washingtons, and even Franklin were not slave holders. Thinking that by representing them as slave holders they would be detracting from their character. The ultimate truth is we can not take people out of the context of their times and moral imperatives, doing so is an injustice to history and the people. All of us, black, white, yellow, etc., would be slave owners if we were born of a southern aristocracy that had slaves to begin with. Same goes with the topic at hand, without context history can not teach us a single lesson.

 

[kayakmac]

It's easy for us to romanticize the past without using the correct context - without context history can not teach us a single lesson.

A great Line! It's easy to attribute greatness to a "cleansed lifestyle", but you need the Grit of life to truly appreciate the life and times of our forebearers - and yes, even with chiggers!

 

[Piney Boy]

A great Line! It's easy to attribute greatness to a "cleansed lifestyle", but you need the Grit of life to truly appreciate the life and times of our forebearers - and yes, even with chiggers!

Especially with chiggers!!! :rofl:

 

[glowordz]

Thank you also for this post, Jerseyman. The life of women back then appalls me. Besides health issues, children dying, and an incredible work load, she had to sit in the carriage while the men explored the land. On the other hand, maybe she was glad to rest.

Glo